Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I just went on a little adventure over the past couple of days trying out different WMs and DEs. I went from XFCE, to gnome, to XFCE, then compiz stand-alone and back again. I found that in every environment I was trying to make it feel more like my openbox setup. Finally I realized that I needed to come back to my comfort zone. I must confess, the main thing I miss from using other DEs is compiz and its wobbly, snapping windows. Not to mention expo, and the desktop wall. However, I hate dealing with all the crap that comes with a DE, and compiz standalone is just not there yet. I also dabbled in awesome because I like the idea of being able to tile my windows, but I don't work enough in terminals to go that far.

Has anyone else ever tried to leave openbox? If so, why? Did you leave for good?

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I am quite new to Arch. Two months or so. I started with Kdemod, didn't like it. Returned to good, old Gnome. This last week I decided to use something different, something I never used before (coming from an Ubuntu past). I didn't like tiling idea so Openbox was the one I tried. And let me tell you: It was love at the first sight. She had problems, but with some loving care we bypassed them. She is very shy, but opens herself gradually. How can anyone leave her?

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

ha, my experience pretty much mirrors your own. I liked the warm fuzzy feeling of GNOME/Compiz-fusion but it was just not pratical or flexible the way Openbox is. Even the most basic stuff was next-to-impossible. Have you ever tried typing in shortcuts in Metacity/Compiz? Yuch...

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I have to admit I am completely enamoured with Openbox after 6 years of Linux usage and trying just a wide variety of WM/DE. I had a similar journey of discovery in that I tried gnome, kde, fluxbox, awesome, fluxbox and others.

The reason I left Openbox was that I managed (very quickly) to get the configuration of Openbox exactly how I wanted it. The big issue is that I am a tinkerer when it comes to all things on my PC. If something is so easily configured to the way I want it I get bored with it over time. I think this is Openbox's biggest issue. Configuration is simple and if you are like me and know what you want and how to get there it gets boring.

When I moved away from Openbox I was also aiming for a tiling window manager but I soon realised that GNU Screen is a far better replacement for multiple screens (well that is the case for my working style anyways).

Yeah. It is seldom that I actually wish I could tile my windows - so those WMs wouldn't be very practical for me. But I've heard rumors about a tiling feature coming to openbox in the future - which of course I wouldn't protest in the least. Does anyone know any more about that rumor?

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

There was a topic here on the forums about people wanting a tiling openbox and i would like it too, because all the tiling wm's have a sucky floating layer. But i don't care about that because i have all my windows tiled all the time. Xmonad ftw.

Ontopic: I have used openbox, i like it the most off all the floating window managers. Nice and simplistic and no(!) dependecies. But i like tiling more so i left... Maybe for good, maybe not.

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Left openbox for Xmonad. Once you finally get used to tiling, I doubt you could go back easily...

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Left openbox for Xmonad. Once you finally get used to tiling, I doubt you could go back easily...

I have, but not completely, still use "tile" (tile-windows in aur) and "whaw"

tile didn't work nicely for me. What is this "whaw" you mentioned ?

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

The OP's question implies that you would want to leave Openbox.

Btw, for those who enjoy the merits of tiling WMs, just configure your openbox to behave like one. I have the following in my rc.xml file which lets me very quickly arrange windows in a tiled layout with no wasted space on my desktop using the MoveToEdge and GrowToEdge actions. Using these actions on windows without decorations lets you created any tiled layout that you want (I tried Awesome before Openbox but just couldn't stand the limited layout options). All it takes is a few drags and clicks.

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Well, I'll be the first -- I've always used gnome. I've tried KDE (Yuck!), went to XFCE for a day, then back to Gnome, then the next month to OB for a couple of weeks. Now I'm back to Gnome. Nothing fits me like Gnome. I really don't know why either!

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

It seems like some people are comparing WMs and DEs. You can use Openbox as a WM inside Gnome or Xfce for example. What you really need to compare are the WMs of those DEs with Openbox (Xfwm for Xfce, not sure what for Gnome).

Anyway now I moved again, to the opposite edge: kde4 and I like it beacouse of integration (with OB you need a separate application for panel or system tray and so on). Openbox is great but i like to change often.

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I switched from openbox to KDE4 and have lasted a few months so far, (although I did instal openbox on debian just incase I got the urge) but think I'm going to stick with KDE4 as its constantly improving so 4.2 should be great

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I left Openbox after having configured it using urukrama's guide. Honestly, I missed the eye-candy. Part of the fun with linux is having a free system looking great. So I am down with compiz-fusion again. It has lasted 5 weeks, I think.

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I was a GNOME/Compiz addict for the longest time, I admit. But I got intrigued with whittling the system down, so now I'm on Arch with Openbox and while I don't have my wobbly windows or neat effects, it still looks fantastic. Yeah, I'm stuck here.

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I had a quite similar way to OpenBox - At first very long GNOME/Compiz, I tried KDE4 and didn't like it (itll take a looong time to reach the level of the KDE3 series and its much too bloated)... all the critics are right (first I didn't believe) and once I got addicted by making my system small, always looking on consumed RAM and Processor Time and number of installed packeged... I used Fluxbox for about a month (First in Ubuntu, then in Arch after I switched)... I maybe would never leave Fluxbox and I really loved it's configuration files... But at some point the menu just refused to work... I tried everything and found no other solution except of switching to openbox... I think they both have advantages and disadvantages... I hate the OpenBox configuration but I like the themes (in Fluxbox I searched very long for a nice one) - Onyx black ftw Well if OpenBox would not use XML at least in the menu file and use there Fluxbox-like syntax it would be perfect... Or maybe I shall invest some time in learning the menu xml stuff... I don't like the default menumaker menu for openbox and would like to ban it to a submenu for example... I don't know how long I'll stay with OpenBox, it depends on how long it will take for me to make the menu do what I want...